This first chapter explains what the book is about and how it differs from the authors’ first two books, Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics. After those books, Levitt and Dubner received many requests from readers looking for answers to questions both mundane and profound. Rather than looking at specific questions, they thought it best to examine their approach to thinking and seeking answers, believing “it might be better to write a book that can teach anyone to think like a Freak” (2).

This kind of thinking, they explain, relies on an approach that may not seem obvious. An example is a penalty kick in soccer. A single player kicks at close range toward the goal, which is guarded only by the goalkeeper. Because the goal is so large, the goalkeeper can only really guess which direction the kick will go and make a split-second decision to dive that way. The very corners are completely out of their reach, but if the kicker is not perfectly accurate, the kick might go wide or ricochet off the post. Data show that goalkeepers move right 41% of the time and left 57% of the time. In only 2% of shots do they stay in the middle; thus, the best odds are for the kicker to aim dead center.